Yomiuriland.

Fearing the end of summer is approaching fast, I decided to tick off "POOL" from my long list of "THINGS TO DO IN SUMMER". I got up early Saturday morning and started looking online for a place to go, somewhere close by but recommended. 

I surf the web and landed on the 'Tokyo Reviews' web page there i found a lot of good and well known theme parks but they are about 3 hours from where I live and closes as early as 5pm. and with only 3 hours remaining i decided to go to Yomiuriland. 

First opened  in 1964, this is one of the larger and well known theme parks in Tokyo. Located on hillsides, this park is the home of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, their main training ground before the completion of the Tokyo Dome. The park features thrill rides and other attractions, including a number of restaurants offering the usual park-food, Hot dogs, Noodle dishes, ice-cream to mention a few. 

There are 2 train lines that goes to yomiuriland station, the keio-sagamihara line; Keio-yomiuri-land-station and Odakyu line; Keio-yomiuri-land-mae-station. From both stations there are other public transports to get you to the top of the hill where the park is. Costing less than 300yen one way. 

 I decided to take the odakyu line despite having access to both lines. I got out from one of the exits and start looking for the Bus stop, I went all around the station without any luck. In the end I  had to ask one of the shop keepers in a random shop near the station. She gave me a fair enough explanation on how to get to the bus stop but insisted that I grab a cab instead. I wanted to try my luck and go wait for the bus, 30 minutes later there was still no bus, leaving me with only 2 hours before the pools close for the day. Finally after 40 minutes waiting the Bus arrived, 15 minutes later I was in front of the entrance buying my ticket which costs around 2800yen for adults. With this price I have access to both the pool and the theme park.

I was excited and very happy to have at least 2 hours of pool time before heading towards the theme park. I was thrilled to find the facilities were well organised and maintained, enough changing rooms, lockers and showers. I then went to the pools, there were about 5 of them with a million Japanese. I was so disappointed, the pools were too small (someone must have thought pools = fountains.) The fountains in  Yoyogi parks are bigger than these pools. The wave pool?? what wave pool? there were no waves at all.....The sore sight was the people in floaters when its not even deep. A child could walk around the pools without even a single chance of drowning and you see matured adults in floaters its ridiculous. Feels like I'm in a rehabilitation centre. The only thing that looks like fun were the slides, however the biggest slide cost you an extra 600yen which is even more ridiculous after spending almost 3000yen for this lousy set up. The other slides are less than 50metres high yet one has to queue up for nearly an hour. Feeling so disappointed I went back to the lockers and then head for the theme park.

The theme park was dead, feels like I'm in zombie land or the set for a horror movie. The thrill rides are so old that you could put them in a museum. There were  no giggling teenagers or excited children around, just a handful of security guides and the elders heading for the newly constructed bath house.(Who put a bathhouse in a theme park??) A few excited tourist running around probably fooled by the parks website as well. The food was disgusting, I ordered a hot dog, expecting the typical hot dog you get in any other theme park, what i received was a bun, shredded lettuce and sausage. My cream soda turn out to be a melon Ice-cream soda (Japanese style). 

I ended up spending more than a 10000yen for less than 2 hours of zombie land. That place is a disaster, you have the feeling to be in a museum. Surrounded by curators (not that i have any thing against them.)

The worst part is, their official website was misleading. Not to mention the reviews on the guide books and sites. I'm well aware that its all part of attracting visitors/customers/ fools but there are a lot of other great theme parks that should be placed in the top 10 theme parks of Tokyo. It really has nothing to do with being one of the oldest theme parks  or run by one of the most beloved base ball team and company: Yomiuri group.

Even the blogs have such good things to say on their reviews that makes me sick. Is this your first time to go to a theme park? oh wait....!!! are you old enough to be blogging?? Because even 6 years olds would find that place boring. Have you ever heard of USJ? or even the little one in Asakusa(??) was still one of the best, they let people know what to expect, even go as far as admitting that its tiny and can get a bit too crowded. 

 If you are thinking of heading to a pool or theme park please forget about Yomiuriland despite what the reviews say. Well unless your idea of an attraction park is equivalent to zombie land or horror land and fountains for swimming pools. 

The "wave" pool

Its not this big! 

The actual pool is not this big, its 10 times the size portrayed here. And not as glamorous!